Leocadia (Goya)
Encyclopedia
La Leocadia or The Seductress (Spanish: Una Manola) are names given to an oil on linen painting by the Spanish artist Francisco Goya
(1746–1828), completed sometime between 1819–23, as one of Goya's series of 14 "Black Paintings
". It shows a woman commonly identified as Goya's maid, companion and possibly lover, Leocadia Weiss. She is dressed in a dark, almost funeral maja
dress, and leans against what is either a mantelpiece or burial mound, as she looks outward at the viewer with a sorrowful expression. Lecodia is one of the final the "Black Paintings", which he painted in his seventies at a time when he was consumed by political, physical and psychological turmoil, after he fled his position as court painter in Madrid for the country.
According to the c. 1828-30 inventory of his friend Antonio Brugada
, Leocadia was situated in the ground floor which Lawrence Gowing observes can be divided thematically into two; a male side of Saturn Devouring His Son
, A Pilgrimage to San Isidro
, and a female side compromising Judith and Holofernes
, Aquelarre and Leocadia. All the works in the series were transferred to canvas after Goya's death and now reside in the Museo del Prado
in Madrid
.
, he produced a series of 14 works, which he painted with oils
directly onto the walls of the house. At the age of 73, and having survived two life-threatening illnesses, Goya was likely to have been concerned with his own mortality, and was increasingly embittered by the conflicts
that engulfed Spain in the decade preceding his move to the Quinta del Sordo, and the developing Spanish Civil War of 1820–1823 and the civil strife
–indeed, Goya was completing the plates that formed his series The Disasters of War
during this period. Although he first decorated the rooms of the house with more inspiring images, in time he painted over all of them with the intense and haunted pictures known today as the Black Paintings. Uncommissioned and never meant for public display, these pictures reflect his darkening mood, with their depictions of intense scenes of malevolence, conflict and despair.
If Goya gave titles to the works he produced at the Quinta del Sordo he never revealed what they were; the names by which they are now known were assigned by others after his death, and the paintings are often identified by variations on the common title.
. X-ray shows that the mound may originally have been an open fireplace and the veil a later addition. Leocadia's head rests on her forearm and she looks thoughtfully towards the viewer and is portrayed in a sympathetic manner. The work is illuminated by a yellow light falling on her face, arm and chest. The background shows a blue and white sky emiting an ocher yellowish noon-light reminiscent of one of his final works, The Milkmaid of Bordeaux
.
The painting contains a sense of peace and air of reconciliation absent in the other works from the series. Writer Juan José Junquera wrote that the work may represent a personification of Melancholy
, or given the relationship between artist and model, "the symbol of the fire of love and of the home and the presentiment of coming death." According to Robert Havard, her confident stare and maja dress may be indications of her earlier charge of adultery.
Leocadia, with her daughter Rosario, lived with and cared for Goya after Bayeu's death. She stayed with him in his Quinta del Sordo
villa until 1824. Sometime in 1824 Goya lost faith in or became threatened by the restored Spanish monarchy's anti-liberal political and social stance, and abandoned Spain to live in France, until his death 1828. Leocadia followed him with Rosario and stayed until his death.
Not much is known about her beyond her well-recorded fiery temperament. She was likely related to the Goicoechea family, a wealthy dynasty into which the artist's son, the feckless Javier, had earlier married. It is believed she held liberal political views and was unafraid of expressing them, a fact met with disapproval by Goya's family. It is known that Leocadia had an unhappy marriage with a jeweler, Isideo Weiss, but was separated from him since 1811. Her husband cited "illicit conduct" during the divorce proceedings. She had two children before the marriage dissolved, and bore a third, Rosario, in 1814 when she was 26. Isideo was not the father, and it has often been speculated– although with little firm evidence –that the child belonged to Goya. There has been much speculation that Goya and Weiss were romantically linked, and that in this work, she is posed as his widow mourning at his tomb. However, it is more likely the affection between them was sentimental.
From her representations it has been assumed that she was striking looking – if not pretty – and probably in her early 30s at the time of this portrait. She had a strong fiery character; from Goya's letters it it is obvious that her manner often displeased and upset him. Leocadia was left nothing in Goya's will; mistresses were often omitted in such circumstances, but it is also likely that, in the last years of his life, he did not want to dwell on his mortality by thinking about or revising his will. His son Javier, who inherited a large amount of his father's inventory and unsold paintings, but had refused to visit him in Bordeaux, gave her 1,000 francs and pieces of furniture from the home she had shared with his father. Leocadia was not believed to have been a fool and or one to be pushed aside with an empty gesture.
She wrote to a number of Goya's friends to complain of her her exclusion, and that Javier had stolen silverware and pistols from her home. Unfortunately for her, many of her friends were Goya's and by then old men and had died, or died before they could reply. Largely destitute she moved into rented accommodation. In poverty she passed on her copy of the Caprichos for free. She also sold The Milkmaid of Bordeaux
- Goya had told her not to accept less than 'one ounce of gold'- to the Count of Mugurino, but the price she received is lost. Her French pension was cut off shortly after. She still had a number of Goya's drawings, auctioned in 1869; however again it is not known how much she received for any of them.
Francisco Goya
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker regarded both as the last of the Old Masters and the first of the moderns. Goya was a court painter to the Spanish Crown, and through his works was both a commentator on and chronicler of his era...
(1746–1828), completed sometime between 1819–23, as one of Goya's series of 14 "Black Paintings
Black Paintings
The Black Paintings is the name given to a group of paintings by Francisco Goya from the later years of his life, likely between 1819–1823. They portray intense, haunting themes, reflective of both his fear of insanity and by then, his bleak outlook on humanity...
". It shows a woman commonly identified as Goya's maid, companion and possibly lover, Leocadia Weiss. She is dressed in a dark, almost funeral maja
Majo
Majo or Maja , also Manolo and Manola after the most popular names, were terms for people from the lower classes of Spanish society, especially in Madrid, who distinguished themselves by their elaborate outfits and sense of style in dress and manners, as well as by their cheeky behavior.They...
dress, and leans against what is either a mantelpiece or burial mound, as she looks outward at the viewer with a sorrowful expression. Lecodia is one of the final the "Black Paintings", which he painted in his seventies at a time when he was consumed by political, physical and psychological turmoil, after he fled his position as court painter in Madrid for the country.
According to the c. 1828-30 inventory of his friend Antonio Brugada
Antonio Brugada
Antonio Brugada was a Spanish painter. Brugada is best known for his dramatic seascapes.Brugada was a friend of Francisco Goya, and was instrumental in cataloguing, and idetifying some of the mythological figures in Goya's c. 1823 "Black paintings" series.-Sources:*...
, Leocadia was situated in the ground floor which Lawrence Gowing observes can be divided thematically into two; a male side of Saturn Devouring His Son
Saturn Devouring His Son
Saturn Devouring His Son is the name given to a painting by Spanish artist Francisco Goya. It depicts the Greek myth of the Titan Cronus , who, fearing that he would be overthrown by his children, ate each one upon their birth...
, A Pilgrimage to San Isidro
A Pilgrimage to San Isidro
A Pilgrimage to San Isidro is one of the Black Paintings painted by Francisco de Goya between 1819–23 on the interior walls of the house known as "The House of the Deaf Man" that he purchased in 1819...
, and a female side compromising Judith and Holofernes
Judith and Holofernes (Goya)
Judith and Holofernes is the name given to one of the 14 Black Paintings painted by Francisco de Goya between 1819 and 1823. By this time, Goya was in his mid 70s and deeply disillusioned...
, Aquelarre and Leocadia. All the works in the series were transferred to canvas after Goya's death and now reside in the Museo del Prado
Museo del Prado
The Museo del Prado is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It features one of the world's finest collections of European art, from the 12th century to the early 19th century, based on the former Spanish Royal Collection, and unquestionably the best single collection of...
in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
.
Background
In 1819, Goya purchased the "Quinta del Sordo" ("Villa of the Deaf Man") situated on the banks of the Manzanares near Madrid. This small two-story house was named after a previous occupant who had been deaf, though Goya, by coincidence was functionally deaf as a result by this time, the result of an illness contracted in 1792. Between 1819 and 1823, when he moved to BordeauxBordeaux
Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...
, he produced a series of 14 works, which he painted with oils
Oil painting
Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments that are bound with a medium of drying oil—especially in early modern Europe, linseed oil. Often an oil such as linseed was boiled with a resin such as pine resin or even frankincense; these were called 'varnishes' and were prized for their body...
directly onto the walls of the house. At the age of 73, and having survived two life-threatening illnesses, Goya was likely to have been concerned with his own mortality, and was increasingly embittered by the conflicts
Peninsular War
The Peninsular War was a war between France and the allied powers of Spain, the United Kingdom, and Portugal for control of the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars. The war began when French and Spanish armies crossed Spain and invaded Portugal in 1807. Then, in 1808, France turned on its...
that engulfed Spain in the decade preceding his move to the Quinta del Sordo, and the developing Spanish Civil War of 1820–1823 and the civil strife
Civil disorder
Civil disorder, also known as civil unrest or civil strife, is a broad term that is typically used by law enforcement to describe one or more forms of disturbance caused by a group of people. Civil disturbance is typically a symptom of, and a form of protest against, major socio-political problems;...
–indeed, Goya was completing the plates that formed his series The Disasters of War
The Disasters of War
The Disasters of War are a series of 8280 prints in the first published edition , for which the last two plates were not available. See "Execution". prints created between 1810 and 1820 by the Spanish painter and printmaker Francisco Goya...
during this period. Although he first decorated the rooms of the house with more inspiring images, in time he painted over all of them with the intense and haunted pictures known today as the Black Paintings. Uncommissioned and never meant for public display, these pictures reflect his darkening mood, with their depictions of intense scenes of malevolence, conflict and despair.
If Goya gave titles to the works he produced at the Quinta del Sordo he never revealed what they were; the names by which they are now known were assigned by others after his death, and the paintings are often identified by variations on the common title.
Description
The painting's funereal air is established through the shading of the gray background, the colouring of the model's black veil and maja dress, and her sad or nostalgic expression. She is positioned before an open blue sky, with her body slightly leaning against a rock or mound. The mound is topped by a row of small wrought iron rails, which lead some to think it may represent a burial moundTumulus
A tumulus is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, Hügelgrab or kurgans, and can be found throughout much of the world. A tumulus composed largely or entirely of stones is usually referred to as a cairn...
. X-ray shows that the mound may originally have been an open fireplace and the veil a later addition. Leocadia's head rests on her forearm and she looks thoughtfully towards the viewer and is portrayed in a sympathetic manner. The work is illuminated by a yellow light falling on her face, arm and chest. The background shows a blue and white sky emiting an ocher yellowish noon-light reminiscent of one of his final works, The Milkmaid of Bordeaux
The Milkmaid of Bordeaux
The Milkmaid of Bordeaux is an oil on canvas painting completed between 1825–27, generally attributed to the Spanish artist Francisco Goya . Although the picture is held in great esteem and widely admired by critics and the public, doubt has been cast by art historians as to whether it is an...
.
The painting contains a sense of peace and air of reconciliation absent in the other works from the series. Writer Juan José Junquera wrote that the work may represent a personification of Melancholy
Melancholia
Melancholia , also lugubriousness, from the Latin lugere, to mourn; moroseness, from the Latin morosus, self-willed, fastidious habit; wistfulness, from old English wist: intent, or saturnine, , in contemporary usage, is a mood disorder of non-specific depression,...
, or given the relationship between artist and model, "the symbol of the fire of love and of the home and the presentiment of coming death." According to Robert Havard, her confident stare and maja dress may be indications of her earlier charge of adultery.
Leocadia Weiss
The picture likely depicts Leocadia Weiss (ne Zorrilla, b. 1790) the artist's maid, younger by 35 years, and distant relative, though this identity is contested. As with any of the paintings from the series, the current title was not Goya's own, and he never mentioned or wrote about any of the "Black Paintings". Leocadia was probably similar in features to Goya's first wife Josefa Bayeu, to the extent that one of his well known portraits bears the cautious title of Josefa Bayeu (or Leocadia Weiss). While writer Juan José Junquera describes the identification of Leocadia as "more romantic ...than a certainty", the work bears strong resemblance to a Goya portrait more or less accepted to be of her, and which was left in her possession following his death.Leocadia, with her daughter Rosario, lived with and cared for Goya after Bayeu's death. She stayed with him in his Quinta del Sordo
Black Paintings
The Black Paintings is the name given to a group of paintings by Francisco Goya from the later years of his life, likely between 1819–1823. They portray intense, haunting themes, reflective of both his fear of insanity and by then, his bleak outlook on humanity...
villa until 1824. Sometime in 1824 Goya lost faith in or became threatened by the restored Spanish monarchy's anti-liberal political and social stance, and abandoned Spain to live in France, until his death 1828. Leocadia followed him with Rosario and stayed until his death.
Not much is known about her beyond her well-recorded fiery temperament. She was likely related to the Goicoechea family, a wealthy dynasty into which the artist's son, the feckless Javier, had earlier married. It is believed she held liberal political views and was unafraid of expressing them, a fact met with disapproval by Goya's family. It is known that Leocadia had an unhappy marriage with a jeweler, Isideo Weiss, but was separated from him since 1811. Her husband cited "illicit conduct" during the divorce proceedings. She had two children before the marriage dissolved, and bore a third, Rosario, in 1814 when she was 26. Isideo was not the father, and it has often been speculated– although with little firm evidence –that the child belonged to Goya. There has been much speculation that Goya and Weiss were romantically linked, and that in this work, she is posed as his widow mourning at his tomb. However, it is more likely the affection between them was sentimental.
From her representations it has been assumed that she was striking looking – if not pretty – and probably in her early 30s at the time of this portrait. She had a strong fiery character; from Goya's letters it it is obvious that her manner often displeased and upset him. Leocadia was left nothing in Goya's will; mistresses were often omitted in such circumstances, but it is also likely that, in the last years of his life, he did not want to dwell on his mortality by thinking about or revising his will. His son Javier, who inherited a large amount of his father's inventory and unsold paintings, but had refused to visit him in Bordeaux, gave her 1,000 francs and pieces of furniture from the home she had shared with his father. Leocadia was not believed to have been a fool and or one to be pushed aside with an empty gesture.
She wrote to a number of Goya's friends to complain of her her exclusion, and that Javier had stolen silverware and pistols from her home. Unfortunately for her, many of her friends were Goya's and by then old men and had died, or died before they could reply. Largely destitute she moved into rented accommodation. In poverty she passed on her copy of the Caprichos for free. She also sold The Milkmaid of Bordeaux
The Milkmaid of Bordeaux
The Milkmaid of Bordeaux is an oil on canvas painting completed between 1825–27, generally attributed to the Spanish artist Francisco Goya . Although the picture is held in great esteem and widely admired by critics and the public, doubt has been cast by art historians as to whether it is an...
- Goya had told her not to accept less than 'one ounce of gold'- to the Count of Mugurino, but the price she received is lost. Her French pension was cut off shortly after. She still had a number of Goya's drawings, auctioned in 1869; however again it is not known how much she received for any of them.